Clean energy rollbacks hit rural Texas

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Southeast Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.

RENEWABLES

• Rural Texas ranchers and localities that turned to renewables as a new source of income and tax revenue have taken a hit from the Trump administration’s rollback of clean energy policy and many of the incentives that fueled a construction boom. (Texas Observer/​Grist)

SOLAR

• As many as 40,000 low-income and medically vulnerable Puerto Ricans were supposed to receive federally funded solar panels and battery systems to combat the island’s frequent blackouts, but only 6,000 were delivered before the Trump administration slashed the funding. (Grist)

• South Carolina lawmakers call for another investigation of Silfab Solar after two chemical leaks and concern employees might be falling ill. (Post and Courier)

• Dominion Energy contractors begin construction of an 800 MW solar farm in Virginia. (WSET)

WIND

• Texas is a leader in onshore wind installations, but political hostility and other factors are keeping the state from deploying offshore capacity to match. (Inside Climate News)

• Data center developer Soluna Holdings acquires a 150 MW wind farm in Texas. (Renewables Now)

FOSSIL FUELS

• A Texas refinery explosion last week damaged homes in a neighboring, largely Black town, revealing the human impact of the Trump administration’s push to ramp up fossil fuel production. (Capital B)

• The Golden Pass liquified natural gas export terminal near the Texas/​Louisiana border begins production and prepares to take its first cargo of LNG from a tanker expected to arrive later this month. (E&E News, Reuters)

• Only a quarter of energy companies reported last week they planned to increase drilling due to spiking oil prices, while more than half said they will maintain or even reduce drilling. (Houston Chronicle)

• Oil production off the Gulf Coast booms to hit its highest level since at least 1998 despite the Trump administration’s assertion that endangered species considerations are slowing it down. (E&E News)

• U.S. LNG exports hit a new record in March as conflict in the Middle East took nearly 20% of global supplies offline, with plants running above their nameplate capacity and new processing units starting up. (Reuters)

• Microsoft holds talks with Chevron and investment fund Engine No. 1 to negotiate construction of a $7 billion, 2,500 MW gas-fired power plant in Texas to power a data center campus. (Bloomberg)

COAL ASH

• Georgia Power files a report with state regulators increasing its cost estimate to clean up coal ash by half a billion dollars to $8.5 billion due to inflation. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

NUCLEAR

• Tennessee submits a proposal to the U.S. Department of Energy pitching a site for a nuclear campus that would likely include waste disposal. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

• Texas launches a $350 million program meant to help build out nuclear reactors that aim to power an anticipated data-center demand boom. (E&E News, Utility Dive)

PIPELINES

• Environmental groups challenge the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s Southgate spur from Virginia into North Carolina. (Danville Register & Bee)

UTILITIES

• A new report finds Florida Power & Light ran the highest profit of 110 investor-owned utilities in 2024 and 2025, and has consistently ranked near the top of the list for the last five years. (Inside Climate News)

• Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signs legislation to expand the state’s utility regulatory board, create a secretary of energy in the governor’s cabinet, freeze power rates until 2029, and require Alabama Power to take part in an annual public hearing. (Alabama Reflector, AL.com)

POLITICS

• Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger signs a raft of new energy legislation, including measures to allow data centers and manufacturers to invest in their own substations, to address how large customers buy renewable energy certificates, and more. (Virginia Mercury)

NEW FROM CANARY

• Next-generation geothermal needs more than a technology revolution — Maria Gallucci

• Will California fund or kill its thriving virtual power plant program? — Jeff St. John

• Arizona cuts key renewables policy as clean energy market takes off — Julian Spector